Fair Use Note

WARNING for European visitors: European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent. As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies. You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you. Learn more about this notice and your responsibilities.

Hudson's Weather & Climate

2012
averaged across the UK was the second wettest on record in data which
stretches back to 1910, falling short of a new record by only 6.6mm.
In total 1330.7mm fell last year, compared with the average of 1154mm.
A new record has been set across England and Wales with 1205mm of rain.
And ...

We
may have to get used to wet summers like we've seen recently across the
UK, according Dr Edward Hanna from Sheffield University in an interview
which you can see on Inside Out and Look North tonight.
According to Dr Hanna and an international team of scientists, melting
summer Arctic ice ma ...

The
cold easterly which a large majority of computer models were predicting
to develop this week has failed to materialise, with a much more
unsettled weather pattern expected to return from the Atlantic during
tomorrow.
Last week, 80% of the ECMWF model solutions wanted an easterly
'blocking' ...

There
is now growing consensus between most weather computer models that cold
air from the east is likely to spread across Britain next week.
If so, it will be the first time since March that high pressure has
properly dominated our weather, and will end a long sequence of at times
record brea ...

Only
two thirds of average rainfall needs to fall across the UK in December
for 2012 to end up in the top ten wettest years on record, according to
Met Office data which was first collated over a hundred years ago in
1910.
Should this be the case, it would also mean that nearly half of the yea
...

Internat'l Political Economy

Pssst...is
that a 720p or a 1080p? Here's one last story whose implications run in
the billions and billions that involves home entertainment as we come
to the end of the holiday season. (Oh, the sacrifices I have to endure
alike watching a digitally enhanced Mariah Carey moping around in a Sant
...

Contrary
to hoary stereotypes about "women drivers," the truth is that they are
safer drivers--at least in the EU. So much so that women have been
charged commensurately lower premiums in EU nations for years. However,
in a dubious case of political correctness, the EU has issued a
directive aga ...

Oh,
when will we ever be done with the firebrand red-haired woman from
Argentina, Missus Kirchner? Never will I more clearly support a
blatantly specious argument for "democracy"*--make that *****--than
here. At midyear 2012, the UK government announced plans to hold a
Falklands referendum ...

In the days of my youth, I was told what it means to be a man
Now I've reached that age, I've tried to do all those things the best I can
No matter how I try, I find my way into the same old jam
Good times, bad times, Turkey's had its share alike Led Zeppelin. When it comes to its pros ...

I
am verily annoyed by an FT op-ed by neoconservative stalwart
Christopher Caldwell that so happens to be the most-read article in the
opinion section at the moment, so please indulge me in starting off the
year with a critique. (This remains a blog, after all.) I do not need to
reiterate how Am ...

Economic Collapse Blog

Large
U.S. cities that the rest of the world used to look at in envy are now
being transformed into gang-infested hellholes with skyrocketing crime
rates. Cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Camden, East St. Louis, New
Orleans and Oakland were once bustling with economic activity, but as
industry ...

Do
you believe that economic trouble is coming in 2013? If so, you have a
lot of company. According to a brand new Gallup poll that was just
released, 65 percent of Americans believe that 2013 will be a year of
"economic difficulty" while only 33 percent of Americans believe that
2013 will be ...

The
fiscal cliff deal contains more bad news than it does good news. Yes,
the tax increases on the middle class could have been much worse, and we
should be thankful that Congress at least did something for the middle
class. Unfortunately, they didn't do enough. Every American worker is
going ...

Are
you ready for a wild 2013? It should be a very interesting year. When
the calendar flips over each January, lots of people make lots of
lists. They make lists of "resolutions", but most people never follow
through on them. They make lists of "predictions", but most of those
predictions a ...

What
would you do if all the lights went out and they never came back on?
That is a question that the new NBC series "Revolution" asks, but most
people have no idea that a similar thing could happen in real life at
any moment. A single gigantic electromagnetic pulse over the central
United Sta ...

E U Times

A
grim Federal Security Forces (FSB) “urgent action” memorandum prepared
for President Putin is warning that United States President Barack Obama
has ordered at least 800 highly trained “death squad” units to disperse
throughout his country in preparation for what Russian intelligence
analysts a ...

A
startling Foreign Military Intelligence (GRU) report circulating in the
Kremlin today states that President Obama was informed by White House
medical personal shortly after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s
[photo top right] return to the United States that her health prognosis
was “grim” a ...

US
President Barack Obama enacted a law on Friday targeting Iran’s alleged
influence in Latin America. This comes as Washington already wages a
“covert war” against Iran, according to researcher Soraya
Sepahpour-Ulrich. The act also calls on the Department of Homeland
Security to bolster s ...

A
new Foreign Military Intelligence (GRU) report circulating in the
Kremlin today is saying that United States Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton [photo 2nd right] was injured, and a top US Navy Seal Commander
killed when their C-12 Huron military passenger and transport aircraft
crash landed ne ...

For
anyone who may have thought Senator Feinstein and her colleagues in
Congress were bluffing about coming firearms legislation that would
restrict the sale, transfer and possession of certain firearms, think
again. A summary of the proposed legislation has been made available,
and it’s a whopp ...

Voiceless Victim

As
much of Australia prepares to face catastrophic bush fire conditions
today, I hope everyone is safe from fires and comes through unscathed.
That even includes the church’s carefully protected child rapists and
those who sacrifice additional children to cover up their crimes. Fire
is too ...

The
CEO of the Council Which Should Not Exist, Francis Sullivan, is
following in the footsteps of church officials by claiming, without
basis, to speak for victims of the serial child sex offenders enabled
and protected by his church. This week’s comments include a stated
desire to be &#82 ...

Papists
protect rapists by Voiceless Victim Papists protect their child
rapists but won’t protect kids – like me. Papists pretend. What rapists?
Who cares what those lies do to me. Papists revere holy rapists but
won’t even listen to me Papists stand up for their rapists the o ...

One
month after the announcement by the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia
Gillard, of a national Royal Commission into child sexual abuse in
religious and other institutions, the Catholic Church in Australia
announced its own body. The so-called Truth, Justice and Healing
Council. Sounds like i ...

This
year is the first Christmas that Australian victims of clergy child
sexual abuse live in a country that no longer ignores our suffering,
that recognises that what was done to us constitutes serious crimes that
deserve investigation, and intends to do something about it. We are yet
to see wh ...

WL Central

With
economic and military force, in the last decades the United States has
attained sole superpower status in the world. The legacy of the US
empire carries a dark history: genocide of natives, slavery of blacks
and criminalizing immigrants from the South.
None can deny that much of US hegemon ...

This
month, Russian Pioneer magazine reportedly awarded WikiLeaks
editor-in-chief Julian Assange the "Grand Prix" in the publication's
second annual literary competition.
Assange received the prize for his essay "Washington vs. Mankind"
Winners were said to receive bicycles and bottles of cogna ...

Julian
Assange is currently the lead contender in an online voting contest for
the Pericles Prize. Votes for the WikiLeaks leader and others have been
cast in answer to the question "Who of all politicians was most sincere
in his fight for social progress in 2012?"
In the "Global" category, Assa ...

On
Monday Torrent Freak reported that, after three years of service to the
organization, PayPal has frozen the funds of PRQ, an ISP founded by The
Pirate Bay's Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm. Earlier this month,
sources also reported the suspension of the Twitter account of Anonymous
Sweden ...

Following
on the heels of Underground: The Julian Assange Story - a 2012 biopic
on the WikiLeaks founder's teen years - several major Hollywood studios
are in various stages of planning or producing feature films about
Assange and his organization.
One full-length feature, tentatively titled The ...

U N News

Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon has appointed renowned United States physician Paul Farmer
to help galvanize support to eliminate cholera in Haiti, where the
disease has already claimed over 7,750 lives.

Returning
to his usual office for the first time since the United Nations
Headquarters' major restoration project began almost five years ago,
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today expressed excitement for the
"historic" and eco-friendly renovations which have revamped the 60-year
old Secretariat ...

Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon has written to the Governor of Connecticut in the United
States to express his deepest condolences at the murders which took
place on Friday at an elementary school there, according to his
spokesperson.

Conspiracy Reality TV

The
trailer for Gangster Squad (shown before the movie) shows a theatre
full of people being shot by numerous gunmen. This Batman comic "The
Dark Knight Returns" depicts a Batman inspired shooting at a movie
theatre.

Blood
coltan still exists. I'm holding a mobile phone. And I know that the
microprocessor it contains uses coltan. And if this coltan has been
obtained at the massacre of 10 or 20 villagers through slave labor, the
suffering of children forced to work in the mines by the armed militia.
This is i ...

Some
state governments passed measures to forcibly quarantine residents,
incarcerate those who refuse to be vaccinated, and to forcibly vaccinate
your children. Legislation like this passed during the much hyped H1N1
flu outbreak.

Rewilding Institute

LIFE
ON THE BRINK Environmentalists Confront Overpopulation Edited by
Philip Cafaro and Eileen Crist University of Georgia Press, December
2012 About the book Life on the Brink aspires to reignite a robust
discussion of population issues among environmentalists, environmental
studies scholars, ...

HERE’S
WHY: Wild Utah Project is raising awareness and funds for their ongoing
sage-grouse campaign because sage-grouse numbers have been diminishing
West-wide for years. They have just gone live with their first
video, Dance for Survival: Protecting the Sage-Grouse and a fundraising
chall ...

Posted
by Marcel Evans on October 17, 2012 in Science News In the past week
The Costa Rica Star has published on the shark finning ban that was
signed by Laura Chinchilla in the presence of Sir Richard Branson, near
Manuel Antonio National Park. Sea Shepherd is not buying it. This is
simply smok ...

(September
4, 2012) The DC-based group Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR)
recently announced a major new project: an Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) on U.S. immigration policy. PFIR has also unveiled the
website for the new project, and invites public comments on the proper
scope ...

Published
on Aug 17, 2012 by NewMexicoPBS Why is it important for prairie dogs to
be restored to their native habitat? Biologist Dr. Ana Davidson and
Petunia (Gunnison’s prairie dog) join us to share insights about the
ecology of New Mexico’s grasslands and the importance of reestabl ...

We Know the Lies

This documentary provides the facts about psychotropic drugs and the huge
profits they create for the pharmaceutical industry. These drugs are not
safe and have not been on the market long enough to provide sufficient
long term studies regarding their effects. ~ Documentary
read more

We
would like to thank our loyal readers and new visitors for another
great alternative news year. We hope every one had a safe and wonderful
Christmas... Best wishes for a safe, peaceful, healthy, enlightened and
prosperous New Year... Stay awake and wake up those around you...
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2 ...

Over
the weekend a mainstream media web site on the east coast published,
presumably in the interest of public safety, a complete list of
individuals and businesses that are licensed to carry or own handguns. ~
Mac Salvo
read more

Illuminati hiding in plain sight? Is this the same girl wearing the
same dress? Or is it her sister (between parents) already wearing the
dress of the deceased? Obama and the children seem pretty cheerful
considering Emilie was supposedly brutally murdered days before... Henry Makow - Video
r ...

Webster
G. Tarpley, Ph.D. PressTV December 24, 2012 In Charles Dickens’
celebrated short story A Christmas Carol (1843), the Malthusian miser
and London stock exchange speculator Ebenezer Scrooge is told by the
ghost of his deceased partner Jacob Marley that “it is required of every
man that th ...

Webster
G. Tarpley, Ph.D. PressTV December 16, 2012 The second Obama
administration is now just a month away, reminding us of the century-old
American tendency for second presidential terms to be troubled and
often unsuccessful. Second terms are particularly vulnerable to scandal.
At the same t ...

Modern Survivalism

How
do I choose which hand grain mill to buy? There are quite a range of
prices for various hand grain mills, and it may seem difficult to decide
which one to choose, but you can narrow your choice by considering two
basic questions… 1. Do you intend to grind/mill into flour for breads
(ve ...

Flu
Map – United States Flu patients are flooding clinics. The CDC reports
no sign of a peak for this year’s early and intense flu season in which
the numbers are startlingly higher than recent past years. “I think
we’re still accelerating,” said Tom Skinner, a CDC ...

image
source: BREITBART There are more people killed each year from hammers
and clubs than there are from rifles. Will Senator Feinstein target
these hammers and clubs as soon as she’s through gutting the 2nd
Amendment? According to the FBI annual crime statistics, the number of
murders co ...

Prepare
for the unexpected by carefully making a catalog of all your keepsakes,
especially for insurance purposes. Photograph and list your household
valuables, along with estimates of their worth. With digital cameras
today, it is very easy to snap photos and keep an electronic record of
the th ...

What
Is Carjacking? Carjacking is the crime of stealing a motor vehicle when
the vehicle is occupied. Typically, the carjacker is armed, and the
driver is forced out of the car with the threat of bodily injury. In
other rarer cases, the driver is kidnapped under the assault by a
weapon, or made ...

Fast Company

Artist Matt Kenyon exploits a common optical illusion in Supermajor, a
commentary on the oil industry’s abundance and waste. Ever heard of a
“supermajor?” I hadn’t either. But if you grew up in an oil town or
near the Gulf Coast, it’s probably a familiar term. ...

Miami photographer Michael Zimmerer photographs the post-snowstorm
Midwest. My childhood memories of snow--in rural Alberta and
Pennsylvania--are magical. My adult memories? Not so much. Living in a
city has its perks, but trundling through a layer cake of ice,
McDonald’s wrappers, a ...

From pulling water from fog to saving fuel used to boil water, these
companies are the finalists of a contest to change the way we use our
most precious resource. It’s impossible to overstate the value of
water. Without it, we’d be dead. And yet, 69% of Americans polled in a
re ...

Apple reveals that 40 billion app downloads took place on iOS devices
since the iPhone debuted in 2007. It may have been a very 'appy
Christmas for smartphones and tablets of all stripes, but Apple's just
announced some truly staggering statistics. Since the arrival of the
iPhone in 2007 s ...

In
December of 1400, Timur left the rubble of Aleppo and Hama behind,
making his way to the outskirts of the first city of Syria, Damascus. By
this time an Egyptian army under the command of the Mamluk Sultan
himself had arrived in Syria, engaging in several skirmishes with
Timur’s forces. ...

[This
is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating on Egypt
and reflects a wide variety of opinions. It does not reflect the views
of the Egypt Page Editors or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own
recommendations for inclusion in each week's roundup to
egypt@jadaliyya.com by Sund ...

This
is a selection of what you might have missed on Jadaliyya last week. It
also includes a list of the most read articles. Progressively, we will
be featuring more content on our "Last Week on Jadaliyya" series.
Orientalist Feminism Rears its Head ...

mediagazer

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:
Shop for ebooks at the grocery store, with new txtr/ReaderLink
partnership — In an attempt to compete with Amazon and Barnes &
Noble, Berlin-based ebook company txtr and U.S. print book distributor
ReaderLink have partnered to sell ebooks t ...

Ben Sisario / Media Decoder:
Sony and BMG Are Said to Team Up on Bid for EMI — Sony and BMG,
onetime partners in one of the music world's biggest mergers, are
teaming up again on a bid to buy — and then divide between themselves —
some of the recorded music assets ...

Jim Romenesko:
Freelance Writer Says He Was Stiffed By The Daily — On November 26,
The Daily published freelancer Robert Johnson's story, “Iran's Speed
Demons.” — One week later, Rupert Murdoch & Co. announced they
were pulling the plug on the ...

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Samsung will sponsor AP tweets during CES — Electronics giant Samsung
will provide content for tweets sent through AP's account during the
2013 International Consumer Electronics Show electronics show in Las
Vegas, the press cooperative says in a pres ...

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:
BuzzFeed parties on with launch of Hollywood site — Viral media beast
BuzzFeed has already shaken up news coverage in New York and
Washington. Now, the site is taking its playbook to the west coast
where it aspires to remake reporting on ...

Chemtrail News

I
suspected it of being a Chemtrail and therefore pulled out the video
camera to film it. Many planes went by during the shooting, more than
any other time I have ...
https://chemtrailsnorthnz.wordpress.com/.../chemtrail-and-ufo-...

World News - Top Stories

MILAN
- Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi announced a deal Monday with the
Northern League — his fractious coalition partner in three governments —
to jointly run in Italy's election next month, a move that could give
fresh impetus to the center-right and extend the Berlusconi era. Wh ...

UNITED
NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expressing
disappointment that Syrian President Bashar Assad has rejected the most
important elements in a roadmap to end his country's 22-month conflict —
a political transition and establishment of a transitional governing
...

The
Selecao full-back has rejoined his team in preparation for the Copa del
Rey clash against Celta Vigo having had a spell on the sidelines since
October last year By Chris Kvesa More On : Real Madrid CF, Marcelo...

Whooping
cough , medically known as pertussis, was an epidemic across the United
States in 2012. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released its
preliminary 2012 data on Thursday and reported 41,880 cases of the
highly contagious respiratory illness. The total number of pertussis
cases for Ne ...

The
German government's chief climate advisor is the furthest thing from an
objective, dispassionate scientist. He thinks using fossil fuels
amounts to “a lifestyle of mass destruction” - and that the UN should be
put in charge of trillions of dollars.

IPCC
officials are telling Working Group 2 authors about scientific papers
that haven't been written yet. These papers will appear in a special
edition of a journal guest-edited by an activist scientist.

Anna's News

Hollywood
is converting blockbuster films into 4-D because cinemagoers are
shunning pricey multi-dimensional 3-D versionsBut the experience has
left some fans feeling sick, damp and pummeled after watching movies
like Kung Fu Panda 2 and the latest ......
Submitted by Anna Smith to Science & ...

Rory
McIlroy's Tiger-esque performance at Congressional has many golf fans
wondering what the 22-year-old has in store for Royal St. George's, one
of the most difficult courses in the Open Championship rotation. Past
winners Walter Hagen, Sandy Lyle and..
Submitted by Anna Smith to World ...

Snails
are able to survive intact after being eaten by birds, according to
scientists.Japanese white-eyes on the island of Hahajima, Japan feast on
tiny land snails.
Submitted by Anna Smith to Animals | Note-it! | Add a Comment

National
parks represent our country's last stronghold of wilderness. But the
large majority of parks are suffering, too.Ninety-five percent of parks
assessed in a recent study have lost key species that once helped define
them. Meanwhile, 91 percent ....
Submitted by Anna Smith to Animals &nbs ...

The
financial crisis "almost certainly" led to an increase in suicides
across Europe, health experts say.The analysis by US and UK researchers
found a rise in suicides was recorded among working age people from 2007
to 2009 in nine of the 10 nations......
Submitted by Anna Smith to Health & Well ...

Medical Marijuana

www.procon.org
- – Educators in over 3,500 schools in all 50 US states and 53
countries use ProCon.org. 756 elementary and middle schools, 1,821 high
schools, and 983 colleges and universities use our free nonpartisan
research to stimulate critical thinking. The newest international
schools usin ...

medicalmarijuana.procon.org
- How many people in the United States use medical marijuana?
There are an estimated 1,029,315 patients in the 18 legal medical
marijuana states and DC, as well as an estimated 2,421,069 medical
marijuana users in the United States (based on an ave ...

www.procon.org
- - NEW ProCon.org Website! - Should the United States return to a gold
standard? - Proponents of the gold standard argue it provides long-term
economic stability and growth, prevents inflation, and would reduce
the size of government. Opponents argue a gold standard would creat ...

www.procon.org
- – Critical Thinking Video Series #2: Milk – Does milk help to build
strong bones, or does it weaken them? Does it help you lose weight, or
make you fat? Does it reduce cancer risk, or increase it? Does milk
contain pus, or is that a myth? Explore both sides of the milk debate in
...

www.procon.org
- - NEW ProCon.org Website! - Should the United States
maintain its embargo against Cuba? - February 7, 2012 marked the
50th anniversary of the ongoing US embargo against Cuba. Proponents
of the embargo say that the economic sanctions and travel restricti
...

Gyrovague's Raves

Vex,
Hex, Smash, Smooch Constance Hale I wanted really to understand the
relationship between nouns and verbs. Another question that I had: Why
do linguists look so scathingly at grammarians? And why do grammarians
look so scathingly at the history of English? Why is there a divide? And
why is t ...

Vannevar
Bush This has not been a scientist’s war; it has been a war in which
all have had a part. The scientists, burying their old professional
competition in the demand of a common cause, have shared greatly and
learned much. It has been exhilarating to work in effective partnership.
No ...

JOSEPH
EPSTEIN In a loose definition, the “liberal arts” denote college study
anchored in preponderantly Western literature, philosophy, and history,
with science, mathematics, and foreign languages playing a substantial,
though less central, role; in more recent times, the social science
subjec ...

Culture
thrives on conflict and antagonism, not social harmony – a point made
rather memorably by a certain Harry Lime, says philosopher John Gray.
"In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror,
murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vin
...

Adrian
Versteegh “It will be necessary to start off with the major fact,”
writes Roland Barthes in Travels in China, “the absolute uniformity of
clothes.” That this should count as a “major fact”—partway through a
journal that opens with a gripe about freshly stained trousers—ought to
provide so ...

In Verbena | Royal Society

LSE’s public policy group put on an excellent conference programme on 4
December at Beveridge Hall. The conference explored the themes:1) the
Economic impact of academic research; 2) impact and the new digital
paradigm; 3) next steps in assessing impact; 4) impact as a driver for
Open Access. ...

Brussels on a cold morning, the sun reluctantly rising in the clear
sky, and there’s science to be done. Sitting at a jaunty angle from the
European Parliament is “possibly the best investment Bavaria ever made”
(according to Gunnar Wiegand, Deputy Director at the Representation of
the Free St ...

On the understanding that we needed to be indoors for a conference, the
Taipei weather was accordingly drizzly with rain. The CODATA 2012
International Conference began on Sunday 28th October running until
Wednesday 31st October. With several keynotes, high level panel
discussions, and 4 or 5 ...

I
attended a Policy Network event on 3 December. It was part of their
series on economic reform, and the launch of William Lazonick &
Marian Mazzucato’s paper called The Risk-Reward Nexus. Committee Room 3
in the House of Lords was a wonderfully grandiose setting. The event was
to centre on ...

As
part of our dissemination activities for the Royal Society ‘People and
the planet’ report, Sir John Sulston FRS and I visited Nairobi for a
series of meetings with policymakers and a public lecture at the
University of Nairobi. While we were there, the African Population and
Health Research C ...

NAU Resistance

Regardless
of whether this particular agreement bears fruit for those seeking to
bring the two countries into a closer union, or whether it is just
another waypoint on the road of a much longer and more detailed process,
the very real concerns about the erosion of national sovereignty
implicit i ...

"On
Tuesday December 13th the Minister of the Environment Peter Kent
announced that Canada is removing itself from the Kyoto Protocol. Kent
is pushing for a more unified agreement that would unite all nation's on
a global scale."

By:
Press For Truth (http://www.pressfortruth.ca)
Release Date: 11/9/11
The agenda for a North American Union is underway and a new security
perimeter deal will blur the lines at the border and further erode the
sovereignty of Canadians and Americans. On November 13th Stephen Harper,
Barack Ob ...

Gaea Times

WASHINGTON
- Who says hairbrush can only be used to comb locks? Scientists have
made a hairbrush like device that would be able to monitor mental
activity.
One of the main techniques for measuring and monitoring mental activity,
called functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), can often b ...

LONDON
- Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has told key striker
Wayne Rooney that he must respect the club and its traditions if he
wants to stay on.
Commenting on reports that suggest that the star player wants to leave
Manchester United for another club - either Manchester City or ...

SYDNEY
- Google Street View has spotted a god-like figure floating midair
above a lake in Quarten, Switzerland.
Although the image, discovered by the Gawker blog, is apparently the
result of some sort of light distortion or lens flare, blogger Max Read
has questioned whether it might have more ...

WASHINGTON
- Dogs-apart from being man’s best friend-have a special role to play
in the lives of children with special needs.
A new study by the Universite de Montreal has suggested that
specifically trained service dogs can help reduce the anxiety and
enhance the socialization skills of ...

WASHINGTON
- A new study has revealed human sex hormones influence the structure
and function of the right ventricle (RV) of the heart.
The researchers found that in women receiving hormone therapy, higher
estrogen levels were associated with higher RV ejection fraction and
lower RV end-systol ...

TruthNews Australia

In
the second hour of today's show we bring you some audio clips from the
late Dr. Thomas Szasz, pyschiatrist, philosopher and intellectual giant
of the modern era.
Szasz was well known for his critique of biochemical reductionism in
psychiatry, but it is interesting to note that he was also a ...

My
guest tonight is Rochelle Macredie, LLB, BSc, who joins us to expose
discrepencies, anomalies and disinformation in the coverage of the Sandy
Hook school shooting.
Rochelle's incisive intellect dissects many confusing strands of this
story in an attempt to penetrate through the propaganda t ...

On
today's show in the second hour we welcome Mike Holt of Restore
Australia.
Restore Australia’s goal is to amend Section 128 of our Constitution to
give all Australian voters, as well as the Parliament, the right to
initiate a referendum to amend the Constitution.
Why should we do th ...

Today
I'm joined in studio by Damon Crowe for a general discussion about the
quality of life in Australia and the way in which our society has been
swallowed up by the forces of international homogenisation and
enslavement.
We look at the cost of living, sky rocketing property prices, and the
...

Today
we are joined in the first hour by Dr. Don Maisch, the founder of
EMFacts Consultancy, which has produced a wide range of reports and
papers dealing with various health issues related to human exposure to
electromagnetic radiation.
From the website:
This website was established in 1 ...

Beacon

Coming
soon to a coast near you. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Congress has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons this
holiday season, but news out of the Capitol this week could not be
better for the nation’s burgeoning offshore wind industry.
As part of the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ de ...

Sharks,
like this great white, won several major victories in 2012. Source:
Wikimedia Commons
As 2013 rapidly approaches, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the
past year at Oceana. Thanks to your support, we were able to achieve
more than a dozen major victories for the oceans ...

Coral
formations in Juan Fernandez archipelago lie among Chilean seamounts
As you enjoy those last holiday cookies before the New Year comes with
its resolutions, we’d love to share one final present for you to enjoy:
we are thrilled to announce that last week, the country of Chile became
the ...

Sustainable
Prince Edward Island mussels make a delicious dish for hungry men and
women of Harvard. Photo by Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer for
Harvard Gazette
It looks like r’s aren’t the only things getting dropped at Harvard:
Over the last few years, Harvard University Dining Service ...

What's
on your plate? Source: wikimedia commons
Spurred by Oceana’s seafood fraud report for New York City released last
week, Sunday’s New York Times took a broader look at the widespread
practice of food mislabeling.
Oceana’s initial report, which was also covered in the Times, included a
...

Civilian Military Intelligence Group

Empty newsfeed.

Taylor Marsh

DC
has been very busy the last few weeks, and LGBT folks are among those
who have been the focus of some of the busy-ness. A selective overview
follows. DOMA House Republicans just can’t stop spending money to defend
the Defense of Marriage Act. They aren’t representative of all
Republicans, as ...

“Promised
Land,” which was written by Matt Damon and the actor John Krasinski
(with initial help from Dave Eggers), offers observations on something
not often seen in movies—the contrasting morality between caring
desperately about your work and simply doing it competently and
collecting a paych ...

Mr.
Brennan’s nomination will be announced at 1 p.m. along with that of
Chuck Hagel, the former maverick Republican senator from Nebraska, whom
the president has chosen for secretary of defense, said the spokesman,
Thomas Vietor. [New York Times] CRITICIZED AND kept out of the
directorship in Ob ...

The
White House was calling senators’ offices Sunday to inform them Hagel’s
nomination is imminent and to help build support for it, a source
familiar with the nomination said. CNN reported Friday that the White
House had told some senior members of Congress to expect the tapping of
...

SECRETARY
CLINTON is due back to work today. According to the department’s weekly
schedule, Clinton is slated to attend a meeting with assistant
secretaries of state at 9:15 a.m. ET Monday. On Tuesday she’ll meet with
outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and National Security Advi ...

Hudson New York

For
hundreds of years, London has mostly been a welcoming home for
extremists who wished to destroy the very freedoms the city afforded
them. It was here that 19th century nihilists such as Bakunin and
Nechayev freely disseminated their violent ideas. In

Al-Jazeera
TV, located in and financed by Qatar, which just bought Current TV from
former presidential candidate Al Gore for a reported $500 million, "is
providing an alternative viewpoint on domestic news," according to Cathy
Rasenberger, "a cable

Few
people would ever label the hydra-like institutions of the European
Union as transparent... or responsive to the desires of we mere voters.
The EU has long been in the habit of ignoring the will of the peoples of
Europe, if their will is not the same

The
truth sometimes hurts; that is why the Palestinian Authority has been
working hard to prevent the outside world from hearing about many
occurrences that reflect negatively on its leaders or people. In recent
years, the Palestinian Authority

Ahmadinejad
promised it. Now British textbooks are doing it. Israel has been wiped
off the map by Garnet Education, an English-language teaching company in
Britain, whose educational textbook 'Skills in English Writing Level
1', aimed at foreign students

Urban Survival

You
talk about overtime, there’s so much shuffling going on in Washington
it’s like Musical Chairs has gone mainstream. For one, Chuck Hagel is
headed for the SecDef job. The nomination of Hagel may be tougher than
the John Kerry … Continue reading →

Have
to hand it to reader Natasha this morning…this is a rather disturbing
thought for this early in the week: “George: Have you ever
wondered if our corporate overlords are simply shoving what they plan to
do in … Continue reading →

That’s
Quantitative Easing (to) Infinity. The futures for the precious metals
were (how to politely say this?) in the crapper this morning with Gold
down $40 on the futures earlier and silver down 4% as well. What’s
going on … Continue reading →

This
may not seem like a big deal, but there aren’t many explanations for
what happened and none of them make sense. So there I was having my
coffee a few seconds ago and Zeus & I had our … Continue reading →

First
thing into my head this morning as I headed toward the bathroom (at
4:27 AM) was “Let’s begin this morning’s column with ‘Good morning my
little Biscotti...’ since we are one-another’s accompaniment with
coffee. Excuse me if I refer … Continu ...

Radical Chic

Once
you have been to ‘one’ Nigerian party in your life it is safe to say
that you will always know the menu. It is an unwritten rule that you can
be as exotic as you like, but if your party lacks certain fundamental
items, it really isn’t a party. There ‘must’ be J ...

I
once attended a wild party where I had an unusual encounter. It came in
the form of a one night stand. I was a twenty-two year old student,
sent to the US to get my MBA so I could take over my father’s thriving
business someday. My girlfriend whom I’d whimsically thought would
become [...]

This
topic is for you, yes, you! I want to know your opinion on this matter.
What do you think? A 12 year old has a baby, should she be allowed to
keep it? On a biological level this is perhaps not a very common
scenario, but for some reason, Amy is 12 years old [...]

It’s
one of the biggest issues facing sexual relationships today and the
demise of most relationships can usually be traced back to it. But what
exactly is cheating? The dictionary defines it rather unhelpfully as
“marital disloyalty; adultery”. I find this definition almost insulting.
Where do ...

Spending
Christmas in hospital was not how Yinka envisioned her holidays.
Hospitals were places where she received bad news: “I’m sorry your aunt
is dead”; “I’m sorry you can’t concieve children naturally “; and so on.
She and her husband, Tunde had worked hard all year, deferring all
their annu ...

Boston Blog ( Nature Network)

Empty newsfeed.

NRDC Switchboard

David Lennett, Senior Attorney, Washington, D.C. and
Beijing
Key members of Congress recently sent an important
message to the State Department regarding the final negotiations on
a global mercury treaty beginning on January 13. &nbsp ...

Dan Lashof, Program Director, Climate & Clean Air, Washington, D.C.
The long run up to the fiscal cliff is finally, and thankfully, over.
Now, it’s time for the president to address an even more serious cliff: the climate change cliff&mda ...

Victoria Rome, Deputy Director, California Advocacy, San
Francisco and Sacramento
The arrival of a new year is cause for reflection on the
past and renewed commitment to the future. As we look back at 2012,
California has much to be proud of i ...

Kaid Benfield, Director, Sustainable Communities,
Washington, DC
A little-known but very interesting government agency, the National
Endowment for the Arts, is quietly leveraging small amounts of financial
assistance to make a big ...

Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, Director International Program,
Washington, D.C.
Today, nearly 70 environmental and health organizations
sent a letter to President Obama asking him to step up and be a strong
climate leader. The deepening climate crisis is wi ...

Injustice Everywhere

Here
are the 7 reports of police misconduct tracked for Friday, January 4,
2013 Sevier County, Utah: A highway patrol trooper was arrested and
jailed on allegations he had sexually abused a young female relative
over the last 8 years. … Continue reading →National Police Misconduct Ne
...

Here
are the 10 reports of police misconduct tracked for Thursday, January
3, 2013: Greer, South Carolina: A police officer has been suspended
after authorities say he was arrested for public disorderly conduct.
http://ow.ly/gvDP6 Fort Worth, Texas: A police officer … Continue
reading &#85 ...

*Note*
I was out of the office Monday, December 31, so there were no stories
tweeted/recapped that day. This recap reflects the weekend, and the
Holiday. Here are the 9 reports of police misconduct tracked for
Saturday, December 29, 2012 … Continue reading →National Police
Misconduct ...

From
the New York Times: Ms. Steed pulled over Julie Tapia for speeding as
she was driving home. Ms. Tapia was giving a ride to her ex-husband, who
had been drinking, but Ms. Tapia herself does not drink, the suit …
Continue reading →Trooper of the Year is a post from PoliceMisconduc ...

From
the Wall Street Journal: Peter Gleason was a psychiatrist who devoted
much of his professional life to caring for what government officials
call “underserved populations.” He would have been thrilled to learn
that on Dec. 3 in New York, … Continue reading →Federal Ag ...

Total Collapse

The
Russian navy will receive more than 50 new warships by 2016, the
Defense Ministry said Thursday. In the coming three years, 18 surface
warships, 30 special-purpose and counter-subversion vessels as well as
six multi-purpose strategic submarines will be put into service, the
ministry said in ...

A
startling Foreign Military Intelligence (GRU) report circulating in the
Kremlin today states that President Obama was informed by White House
medical personal shortly after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s
return to the United States that her health prognosis was “grim” as her
likelihood o ...

The
four major Russian Navy fleets will hold a joint exercise in late
January in the Mediterranean and Black seas. It will be the biggest such
event in decades. Commands for the Northern, Baltic, Black Sea and
Pacific fleets have been preparing for the exercises since December of
last year, the ...

US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s admittance to the New
York-Presbyterian Hospital Monday, Dec, 31 – with a blood clot caused by
concussion – gave wings to a cloud of rumor and conspiracy theories
surrounding her state of health. The hospital, where Saudi King Abdullah
was also ...

A
new Foreign Military Intelligence (GRU) report circulating in the
Kremlin today is saying that United States Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton [photo 2nd left]was injured, and a top US Navy Seal Commander
killed when their C-12 Huron military passenger and transport aircraft
crash landed near ...

Instagram
rolls its advertising Terms of Service back to their original form,
Facebook tries tackling message spam by taking payments for some
messages, and Gangnam Style is the first YouTube... Keep reading →

Beyond Zero Emissions

To download BZE's full submission click here. To download the Repower
Port Augusta Alliance submission click here.
(NOTE: Some people have trouble downloading files from our
website, with some downloads stopping before completion. If you have
this problem then right-click on the li ...

For
the summer holiday season, the first thing on everyone's mind is
naturally how to minimise their carbon emissions.
Well, maybe not the first thing on everyone's mind, but it is at least
possible to have a barbie without contributing extra greenhouse
emissions – and probably more convenient ...

BZE
relies on its dedicated and skilled volunteers for much of our research
and public education initiatives. All our volunteers deserve an award!
Today we are recognising those people that have excelled themselves in
2012. A big thank you to them and to all the people that have
volunteered fo ...

Beyond
Zero Emissions statement, 20 December 2012
New South Wales Energy Minister Chris Hartcher recently said “If we are
unable to access gas the lights will go out. It's as simple as that."
(Daily Telegraph, 9 December 2012).
The statement is clearly wrong, on many counts (see below). Why is ...

Monga Bay ( News )

Birds
aren't that different from people. We learn from our parents, just like
zebra finches learn songs from their fathers. We are active and noisy
during the day, like birds, and we can also be territorial. Also like
birds, we try to attract mates through colorful displays and beautiful
songs. ...

It
was September 1990 and I was flying, blissfully high on a sea of books,
their rich smells, colors and textures heady like incense, in
Blackwell’s Bookshop on Broad Street, Oxford. I had been thrilled just
to arrive in Oxford a week before, fresh from the forests of
northeastern Tasmania ...

Animals
of the Masai Mara is the first illustrated guidebook to the Masai Mara
region along the Kenya and Tanzania border. This is the world famous
region of wildebeest migrations, large felines, towering African
elephants, fascinating cultures, and great flora and fauna diversity.
This is the g ...

On
this date (January 6th) in 1999, Sierra Leone civil war reached pogroms
when youths high on drugs and youthful former soldiers angry over the
ill-thought executions of 24 soldiers, attacked Freetown. It was a day
of horrors untold. When things settled down and peace eventually slowly
returned ...

Sporting
Kansas City striker Kei Ansu Kamara has been voted the Sierra Leonean
Player of The Year 2012 by viewers of sierraleonefootball.com website
rewarding him for his outstanding performance for both club and country.
The announcement was made by living football legend Mohamed Kallon on a
li ...

Freetown:
His Excellency Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma (in photo) on Friday, 4th January
2013, called on Sierra Leoneans from across the board to inculcate and
develop the culture of self-discipline, if the country was to move
forward. The President made the declaration while addressing
representatives ...

As
part of its continued commitment to improve the educational sector in
Kono District, the Playhouse Foundation in partnership with the Tullow
Oil Foundation has commenced the distribution of double school desks and
benches to school in remote areas within the district in December
2012. Phase ...

Dairy Industry - NZ Herald

Financial
institutions may struggle to be ready for new anti-money-laundering
laws if they haven't yet begun preparations, a legal expert
warns.PricewaterhouseCoopers advisory partner Eric Lucas said that when
Australia introduced...

Investment
in New Zealand dairy farming will step up this year after the sector
attracted strong interest in 2012, according to dairy farm syndication
specialist MyFarm.MyFarm said the industry was entering a positive cycle
in 2013...

This
has been another testing year for New Zealand businesses as they rock
along the decade of "grumpy growth" that Finance Minister Bill English
has signposted. It's not been plain-sailing by any means for the five
"business heroes"...

And
so this is Christmas, and what have you done?Sorry about that. I just
can't get the line out of my head and it is silly season, all right? As a
young business reporter I once did the full Twas the Night Before
Christmas as...

The
face of New Zealand business changed over 2012 with a series of senior
appointments made to some of the country's top jobs.These include former
World Bank managing director Graeme Wheeler who took over from Reserve
Bank governor...

Hit & Run | Reason

Instapundit points to this
bit of happy news culled from John Hanger, a Democrat who is
running for governonr of Pennsylvania, where has been secretary of
the state department of the environment and a commissioner of the
public utility commission:
US energy related carbon emission ...

President Obama is
expected to announce Chuck Hagel as his next nominee for
Secretary of Defense and John Brennan as his
next choice for CIA director.
The State Department
says Hillary Clinton is healthy enough and ready to testify
about the 9/11 Benghazi terrorist attack. She ...

When it comes to serious,
lasting budget constraints, our leaders in Washington have the
escape talents of Houdini. The ominous approach of the fiscal cliff
put Democrats in a position to extract a lot more revenue and
Republicans to force real spending cuts. Yet as Steve Chapman
ob ...

A patient walked away without
permission from the
Graylands Mental Hospital in Australia, so staff alerted the
police. A few days later, cops brought a man matching the patient's
description back the hospital, where he was given anti-psychotic
drugs. Only after the man had an adver ...

Generations of children and adults
worldwide have grown up on Walt Disney comics and movies featuring
Mickey Mouse and thousands of other characters, visited the
sprawling and magical theme parks in Florida and California, and
played with toys and games brandishing the familiar Disne ...

Mercury Rising

Spurred
on by this excellent MyFDL piece, which cites this deceitful New York
Times Op-Ed piece, I have decided to address what may be the most
pernicious lie told about Social Security — namely, that it wasn’t
originally designed to take the aging of America’s population into ...

What’s
wrong with this picture? Everything: The red line is productivity, the
green line is real median family income. The time period spans from 1947
to 2011. Notice that while the red line has kept marching upward at
roughly the same rate from beginning to end, the green line — whi ...

What’s
wrong with this picture? Everything: The red line is productivity, the
green line is real median family income. The time period spans from 1947
to 2011. Notice that while the red line has kept marching upward at
roughly the same rate from beginning to end, the green line — whi ...

Persons
familiar with the history of Minneapolis over the past twenty years are
likely familiar with the name of Steve Minn. Minn is a prominent local
developer, former Minneapolis city councilmember under the banner of the
Reform Party (what is now called the Independence Party), and longtime b
...

Persons
familiar with the history of Minneapolis over the past twenty years are
likely familiar with the name of Steve Minn. Minn is a prominent local
developer, former Minneapolis city councilmember under the banner of the
Reform Party (what is now called the Independence Party), and longtime b
...

Reality Sandwich

Join
Itzhak Beery for the live, interactive video course "The Shamanic Path
to Spiritual Abundence: Indigenous Techniques for Entering the Flow of
Life." Learn from acknowledged masters of ancient wisdom traditions how
to invite spiritual abundance into your life by identifying and rem ...

Desertification

Around
the world, 2012 was the year of extreme weather, when we unequivocally
learned that the fossil fuel energy that powers our societies is
destroying them. Accepting this reality is the biggest challenge of the
brand new year. Re-engineering our societies and lifestyles to prosper
on green a ...

The
results of the United Nations climate change conference that closed in
Doha, Qatar on Dec. 8 show once again that the international
negotiations are moving steadily in the right direction, but alarmingly
slow. At the heart of these negotiations is nothing less than the most
challenging energ ...

Rich
countries came to the U.N. climate talks in Doha intent on delaying
needed action on climate change for another three years and a still to
be hammered out new global treaty. This delay will be extraordinarily
expensive and risky. Every year that fossil fuel emissions fail to
decline adds to ...

The
United Nations climate talks in Doha went a full extra 24 hours and
ended without increased cuts in fossil fuel emissions and without
financial commitments between 2013 and 2015. “This an incredibly weak
deal,” said Samantha Smith representing the Climate Action Network, a
coalit ...

Food
prices will soar and hundreds of millions will starve without urgent
action to make major cuts in fossil fuel emissions. That is what is at
stake here on the last day of the U.N. climate talks known as COP 18,
scientists and activists say. Carbon emissions are already disrupting
the world&# ...

The following tweets were originally posted by "Anti War" on Twitter via
its account (https://twitter.com/_AntiWar_), variously, on October 17,
2012; December 9, 2012; December 10, 2012; December 11, 2012; December
13, 2012; December 14, 2012; December 15, 2012; December 16, 2012;
December 17, ...

WAR IS BUSINESS.
by "Ann Arky"
As originally posted on: annarky's blog.
December 24, 2012
In times of "austerity" our "democratic" governments still spend a
whopping slice of your money and my money in killing people across the
globe. We in the UK are the world's fourth largest spender on ...

If
Justin Bieber were a nobody and you’d met him in the street or at a
bar, you might be inclined, provided he’s your type, to ask him, “Wanna
hang out sometime?”, or, more awkwardly, “For you, I’d change the
alphabet and put U and I next to each other.” (Yeah, good luck with
that.)
But Justin ...

The following tweets were originally posted by "Anti-Academics" on
Twitter via its account (https://twitter.com/AntiAcademics), variously,
on November 24, 2012; December 16, 2012; December 17, 2012; December 18,
2012; December 19, 2012; December 20, 2012; December 21, 2012; December
22, 2012; ...

In
October of this year, Paul Russo, Ph.D., SPS’s Director of Online
Programs and an instructor in the Sociology program, led a team of
current CUNY students and graduates to develop a free student-to-student
text book exchange as part of the ApplicationsforGood codathon
sponsored by the M ...

Reblogged
from xahndra: I’ve struggled with putting words to my incredible
marathon experience… That’s why it’s taken me so long to even think
about this post; but here I go. The day before the Philly Marathon, with
“Rocky.” The back of my marathon shirt&#8230 ...

Hello
friends, I am writing to tell you about a Red Cross volunteer day to
Far Rockaway, Queens, which you’ve probably heard about. The story of my
last stint at the shelter in Long Island was posted on the CUNY SPS
Community Blog, and I thank them for their initiative. It may also be on
[...]

To
all of the veterans, active troops, and military families in the SPS
community, we thank you! Returning home and making higher education a
goal is not always easy. We asked alum Armando Vega, and current
student Enrique Diaz to share some of their thoughts on being student
veterans. 1. What ...

Dissident Voice

Leah
Bolger, President of Veterans For Peace, applauded a United Nations
Committee this week for raising concerns about the recruitment of
children into the U.S. military, the U.S. killing of children in
Afghanistan, the U.S. detention and torture of children labeled
“combatants,” an ...

A
highly risible tactic of the Tea Partyers in the United States has been
criticism of president Barack Obama as a “socialist”1 (insulting to
Obama but more so to socialists), particularly since he attempted to
reform a medical care system in a country where over 50 million were
without medical ...

In
2005, I preached on the ecological crisis in a sermon I titled “Hope is
for the Weak: The Challenge of a Broken World.” Looking back, I
realize that I had been far too upbeat and optimistic, probably trying
too hard to be liked. Today I want to correct that. Hence, my updated
title: “Hope [...]

Catch
22s Well it seems now that college graduates are up in arms about the
student loan payments that they will have to make after graduation, and
while Congress and the President have taken the necessary measures to
keep student loan rates from increasing, college graduates still must
confront ...

On
July 4, the people of the U.S. marked the passing of another year’s
perfunctory Independence Day festivities. The date, also, was occasioned
by the formal announcement from physicists at CERN (European
Organization for Nuclear Research) that, according to the banner
headline at CERN&#82 ...

bookshelfporn:
Tea House & Library by Archi-Union, Shanghai
Concrete walls twist up through the interior of this tea house and
library that architects Archi-Union have constructed in the backyard of
their studio.

IPS - Inter Press Services

The
Swiss parliament has decided to tackle wage dumping in the construction
sector. With the introduction of chain liability, general contractors
can soon be held accountable for labour agreement violations by their
subcontractors. Eight euros per hour instead of 27.5 euros guaranteed by
the col ...

The
Cuban government’s economic reforms must consider the myriad
opportunities offered by the Internet, a key platform of the dominant
economic model on the planet, according to interviews with both experts
and average people. “It is not an option for our future development,
it’s an impera ...

Yemeni
women have played an integral role in the protests against ex-President
Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year regime last year. But despite the
country’s upcoming political ‘National Dialogue’ – brokered by Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and intended to bring together a
cross-secti ...

With
President Barack Obama reportedly primed to nominate former Republican
Sen. Chuck Hagel to head the Pentagon early next week, the powerful
Israel lobby, led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC), faces a major dilemma. If it mounts a vigorous campaign to
fight Hagel’s conf ...

As
the Arab Spring enters its third year, new Arab democracies and the
international community should reflect on several critical lessons from
the past two years. Thinking about these lessons and learning from
history, no matter how recent, could help us understand the trajectory
for the next st ...

CASMII - Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran

Summary:
A resolution to the Iranian nuclear dispute is within reach, with Iran
ready to accept limits on its program and many in the West willing to
ease sanctions. But the real question remains whether chest-thumping
politicians and pundits will let a deal go through, writes ex-CIA
analyst ...

Summary:
Reporting on the final U.S. presidential campaign debate, on foreign
policy, The Wall Street Journal observed that "the only country
mentioned more (than Israel) was Iran, which is seen by most nations in
the Middle East as the gravest security threat to the region."
source: Alter ...

Summary:
WASHINGTON, Jan 5 2013 (IPS) - With President Barack Obama reportedly
primed to nominate former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel to head the
Pentagon early next week, the powerful Israel lobby, led by the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), faces a major dilemma.
source: ...

Summary:
President Obama’s selection of John Kerry as the next secretary of
state sends the wrong signal to America’s allies and adversaries alike.
Kerry’s record in the United States Senate, where he currently chairs
the Foreign Relations Committee, has included spurious attacks on the
Inte ...

Summary:
IF there are any two words in Persian that President Obama should
learn, they are “maslahat” and “aberu.” Maslahat is often translated as
expediency, or self-interest. Aberu means face — as in, saving face. In
the nearly 34 years since the Islamic revolution in Iran, expediency has
b ...

The Daily Galaxy

Vesta, a protoplanet the size of Arizonz, has been witness to an
eventful past: images taken by the framing camera onboard NASA's space
probe Dawn show two enormous craters in the southern hemisphere. The
images (above) were obtained during Dawn's year-long visit to Vesta ...

Fifteen new planets have been discovered orbiting in the habitable zones
of other stars by volunteers from the Oxford University-led Zooniverse
project, adding to the 19 similar planets already discovered in
habitable zones, where the temperature is neither too hot nor t ...

Planetary systems with very distant binary stars are particularly
susceptible to violent disruptions, more so than if they had stellar
companions with tighter orbits around them. Unlike the Sun, many stars
are members of binary star systems – where two stars orbit on ...

"Life is everywhere. Intelligence is everywhere. Why do we consider we
are worth talking to? Do we consider the worms and grubs that feed in a
pile of waste by a roadside to be worth communicating with? Do we send
diplomatic expeditions to establish communications with ...

Join the 243,000 Daily Galaxy fans around the world who follow us via
their Twitter page. Our followers include many of the planet's leading
astronomers and scientists, astronauts, space observatories, news
organizations, universities and governme ...

Natural News

The
natural healing approach to curing health related issues is always in
the direction of self-cleansing, self-repairing, and positive health.
This philosophy maintains that even acute disease is a manifestation of
the body's efforts in the direction of self-cure.
Disease...

Many
health-conscious individuals are familiar with colloidal silver, and
the scientific research into its anti-bacterial and germicidal
properties speaks for itself. Less popular and understood, however, is
colloidal gold. Colloidal gold is a tasteless colloid made...

Since
ancient times, fasting has consistently been regarded as an important
part of treating various diseases, including epilepsy. Researchers at
Johns Hopkins University have investigated the effects of fasting in
conjunction with the ketogenic diet (high fat, low carbohydrate...

Your
friendly neighborhood psychiatrist is not above making new year's
resolutions. After all, he needs to improve himself just like the rest
of us. Here are the likely top ten!
1. Try not to commit suicideResearch suggests psychiatrists have a
higher suicide...

Just
days after the publication of a study finding that chemical dispersants
meant to clean up the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico actually made the oil more toxic, a study in Environmental
Science & Technology reveals that the dispersants failed...

Threat Level

A
federal appeals court is reinstating a civil rights lawsuit brought by a
New York man arrested for disorderly conduct after being arrested for
flipping off a police officer in traffic. There's no law against
directing to police what might ...

Google
and Yahoo were among the top advertising networks servicing the most
ads on pirate sites, according to a new study unveiled Thursday. The
analysis by the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern
California found that Pasadena, California-based ...

A
federal appeals court’s August ruling in which it said the federal
government may spy on Americans’ communications without warrants and
without fear of being sued won’t be appealed to the Supreme Court,
attorneys in the case said Thursday.

Santa
wasn't the only one sneaking around on Christmas Eve this year. Google
says that someone was caught trying to use an unauthorized digital
certificate issued in its name in an attempt to impersonate Google.com
for a man-in-the-middle attack.

PERRspectives : Blog

The
Republican opposed the Iraq surge and favored regional negotiations
with Iran and Syria. The GOP luminary has cautioned against pre-emptive
strikes on Tehran's nuclear facilities. He publicly criticized Israeli
settlement expansion in the West Bank. He advised the presidential
campaigns of ...

On
Friday, 67 House Republicans voted against $9 billion in funding to
replenish FEMA's flood insurance program in the wake of super storm
Sandy. Among those naysayers were five Gulf State Congressmen including
Mississippi Rep. Steven Palazzo, whose 4th District was one of the most
extensively ...

For
each of the last 38 years, Lake Superior State University has published
its "List of Words to be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse,
Overuse and General Uselessness." But missing from the dozen terms and
phrases including "double down" and "spoiler alert" sentenced to the
school's ...

With
the fiscal cliff averted, Congressional Republicans are turning to
their next--and more important--hostage. Without draconian spending
cuts, they promise, the GOP will block any increase in the debt ceiling
of the United States. In response, President Obama said, "I will not
have another ...

If
nothing else, the right-wing temper tantrum over Tuesday's "fiscal
cliff" agreement is rich with irony. After all, the "crisis" was never
really about deficit reduction (which the expiration of the Bush tax
cuts would have handled quite nicely) but the very real danger of
slashing the nation ...

Blackspot News Feed

An
explosive new documentary looks at a case once referred to as "the
crime of the century”: the Central Park Five. Many people have heard
about the case -- but far too few know that innocent men were imprisoned
as a result. The film tells the story of how five black and Latino
teenagers were ar ...

With
the Republican Party in a state of turmoil following Mitt Romney's loss
three weeks ago, we begin today's show with a guest who was once one of
the most influential Republican strategists. In 1969 Kevin Phillips
wrote the groundbreaking book, "The Emerging Republican Majority."
Newsweek des ...

Consortium News

TruthOut

The
US is now at war in a third Muslim country, according to the "official
tally" (that is, counting Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, but not Pakistan
or Yemen, for example.) But Congress has never authorized or debated the
US military intervention in Libya. (A sharply disputed claim holds ...

In
a nuclear crisis, life becomes a nightmare for those people trying to
make sense of the uncertainties. Imaginably, the questions are endless.
Radiation is invisible, how do you know when you are in danger? How long
will this danger persist? How can you reduce the hazard to yourself and
famil ...

About
to turn thirty, Conor Grennan planned a year-long trip around the
world. He started his trip with a three-month stint volunteering in the
Little Princes Orphanage in war-torn Nepal. What was supposed to be just
a three-month experience changed Conor's life, and the lives of
countless other ...

Planetsave

The
seas of the world could rise substantially more in the future than has
been previously predicted in IPCC reports. This is primarily because the
the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are likely going to melt
considerably more than was previously estimated by the IPCC, new
research from the U ...

China
appears to be getting ready to do further testing of its anti-satellite
weaponry. The last test that they performed, the destruction of an old
weather satellite, was very controversial because of the huge quantity
of new space junk that it created. Space junk poses a significant risk
to sp ...

A
temperature ‘below’ absolute zero has been achieved by physicists at
the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich and the Max Planck Institute of
Quantum Optics in Garching. “On the absolute temperature scale, which
is used by physicists and is also called the Kelvin scale, it is ...

Vesta,
one of the few remaining protoplanets in the solar system, is
effectively a window into the early days of the solar system. This is
primarily due to its relatively short period of geologic activity and
its ‘frozen’ place in time since then. It was only imaged and studied in
de ...

The
Milky Way contains, at the very minimum, at least 100 billion planets, a
new study from Caltech has concluded. That alone sounds like an
enormous number, but when you consider that the Milky Way is just one of
countless galaxies, the number of planets in the Universe must be
nearly unfathoma ...

Axis of Logic

"The American people are being disenfranchised,
disinherited, and enslaved."
The PBS
Documentary "The Warning" proves the Illuminati bankers deliberately sabotaged
the financial system before 2008. This was not the first time nor will it be the
last."Economic c ...

22
June 2012
CIA agents have been deployed to Turkey to organize the arming of the
so-called rebels in Syria seeking the overthrow of the government of
President Bashar al-Assad, the New York Times reported Thursday.
The report, citing information provided by senior US officials as well a
...

Río
de Janeiro, June 21 (Prensa Latina) Foreign ministres from member
countries of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) are scheduled
to leave today for Paraguay to discuss the situation in that country in
the wake of decisión by the Chamber of Deputies to open an impeachment
against Pre ...

Editor's
Note: Does this sound familiar to anyone? It was 3 years ago this month
that democratically-elected President Zelaya was thrown out of office
by a coup in Honduras backed by the US State Department. In January,
2010 we published Mike Whitney's article, In South America, left-wing
presid ...

22
June 2012
Australian and US governments “playing word games”
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spoke out today from the Ecuadorian
embassy in London about the escalating assault on his democratic rights
and why he had been compelled to seek political asylum in Ecuador.
Interviewed b ...

They Gave Us a Republic

By
@TedFrier
One of the important lessons I took away from Crane Brinton's classic
work on the "anatomy" of revolutions was that regime change does not
always announce itself with shots heard around the world on a New
England village green or by peasants storming royal fortresses. Rather,
the in ...

By
@BGinKC
@MicheleBachmann can stop pretending she gives a damn about the debt or
the deficit. We learned during the "fiscal cliff" legislation debate in
the House that the vanity votes congressional republicans held on
repealing Obamacare have cost us, the taxpayers, over $50 million. Yet
craz ...

The
past couple of months haven't been good ones for Weeper of the House
John "Orange Julius" Boehner. His party lost the presidential election,
and he couldn't even deliver his own caucus for "Plan B" to solve the
so-called fiscal cliff predicament.
Then, last Friday afternoon, according to wit ...

By
@BGinKC
Republicans in Revolt!!! I figure I'll say it since the M$M
won't...Boehner held onto his gavel in spite of the open revolt against
him amid his caucus. Several registered their disgust with votes against
him and others didn't vote at all. He was reelected on the first
ballot, but by ...

By
@TedFrier
If you doubt the Republican Party's response to Hurricane Sandy, or the
school massacre at Sandy Hook, or the serial fiscal cliff/debt ceiling
crises are not linked, then you just have not been paying attention.
Politics is impelled far more by underlying attitudes and psychology th
...

Care 2

Residential
cleaning products are notoriously toxic and unnecessarily expensive.
Families can save the environment and their budget by making these
simple yet effective cleaning products from home and reduce indoor
pollution and exposure to potentially
Submitted by Cher C. to Green Lifestyle &n ...

The
endangered Snow leopard is a semi-large cat living in the snowy
mountains of Central Asia. Experts have estimated that there are between
4,000 and 6,000 snow leopards left in the wild, making them one of
Asias most endangered mammals.
Submitted by Cher C. to Animals | Not ...

Every
year, more than a million men, women, and children in Uzbekistan are
forced by their government to work in the state-run industry harvesting
cotton. Activists who speak out are tortured and detained.
Submitted by Nancy C. to World | Note-it! | Add a Comment

The
Mine Ban Treaty, the ICBL's signature success, counts 160 countries as
party to its terms. The United States is not one of them, keeping
company with other hold-outs such as Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and
China.
Submitted by Nancy C. to US Politics & Gov't | N ...

No Quarter

I
don’t even have to write anything new about the disaster that is John
Brennan. What I wrote more than four years ago is still true. This guy
is dangerous to our nation. Senators need to probe him on Benghazi. The
talking points that Susan Rice relied on most likely have his
fingerprints ...

Who’d
want his job? John Boehner has an emotional moment after being
re-elected as House speaker. The New York Post columnist John Podhoretz
writes that [conservatives "have gone wild" and that conservatives are
"turning on other conservatives" and have accused each other "of
impurity and corrup ...

With
apologies to Deniece Williams and FOOTLOOSE, but a song is appropriate
for the wife of Donnie Hermann, a Georgia mother with two little girls
who came face-to-face with a convicted criminal who broke into her home
the other day. WSBTV.com has the story: The woman was working in an
upstairs ...

The
second he could get out of Dodge, Barack Obama flew back to Hawaii to
resume his vacation. President Obama is residing at a stunning home at
Paradise Point in Oahu while every American worries about the
precipitous tax hikes, including “a new ‘Obamacare”’ tax of 38%. BELOW
...

Futurismic

Perhaps
it’s because of the economy is beginning – finally – to pick up in the
US. Perhaps it is because I’m sick to death of bad election-year
politics, so I’m looking at anything else that comes along of interest.
Maybe it’s even because I wrote about creative destruction the last time
I did a ...

I
get a fairly regular flow of emails about independent film projects.
Most of them, to be honest, bounce straight off me – which says less
about their quality than it does about my own taste in cinema.
Independent cinema – like independent music and literature – has lots of
pr ...

So,
I stand accused of censorship by someone whose comment I declined to
approve on this post. I figure anyone willing to throw around
accusations of censorship is probably a big fan of radical transparency;
hence, by way of amelioration, here is the digital papertrail for the
full exchange. (Em ...

Soooooo,
yeah – I’ve been busy. Did you miss me? New job, Masters degree…
doesn’t leave a lot of spare time, so it doesn’t. But it’s been quiet
here too long, so it’s time to dust down the soapbox and run a
mic-check. One-two, one-two. The Future Always ...

Last
month I pondered the extent to which the Arab Spring and Occupy
Everything are socially-driven acts of creative destruction. Creative
destruction is defined as a “process of industrial mutation that
incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within,
incessantly destroying ...

Therapy News

Empty newsfeed.

Mountaintop Removal

Environmentalist's
death inspires look at green stories worldwide
National Catholic Reporter (blog)
The divestment project got under way two years ago, when a dozen
Swarthmore students saw for themselves the effects of mountaintop
removal in Appalachia. When they returned to their campus, th ...

The
Courier-Journal (blog)
Astronauts take a picture of Appalachian Mountains
The Courier-Journal (blog)
And the heavy human footprint on the Appalachians is much, much newer,
really just a couple hundred years of European settlement, with the big
mountaintop removal mining impacts really being ...

May
Day! May Day! Space Ship Earth's In Big Trouble
U.S. Politics Today
--Rejection of a plan to dump toxic pollution into Eastern U.S.
waterways from West Virginia's largest mountaintop removal coal mining
operation. --A deal with automakers to double fuel efficiency by 2025,
standards ...

Tiffin
Advertiser Tribune
Home, straw home
Tiffin Advertiser Tribune
"I lived in mountain-top removal mining country in West Virginia," she
said. "It's knowing my life is not adding to the suffering of those
mountain people. That's sort of my motivation for doing this.&quo
...

Washington
Times
Rob Sisson: Building a greener future for the GOP
Washington Times
Whether that is rendering a bucolic Appalachian valley uninhabitable
through mountain top removal or through climate change or health costs
caused by asthma and other illnesses, a significant portion of the costs
...

First Read:
First Thoughts: Hagel — a man without a party — Chuck Hagel — a man
without a party... And a man who has a tough confirmation fight ahead...
The nut of the Hagel fight, and why Obama is sticking with him...
Kerry-Hagel-Brennan — a Team of Loyalist ...

Emma Brown / Washington Post:
D.C. charter schools expel students at far higher rates than traditional
public schools — Video: An analysis of documents by The Washington
Post shows the District's charter schools expel dramatically more
students than its traditional public scho ...

David Carr / New York Times:
Old Media's Stalwarts Persevered in 2012 — Everyone knows that
traditional media companies are dead in the water, overwhelmed by ad
skipping, cord cutting and audience flight. We know that because
Chicken Littles (like me) have been saying it ...

AlterNet Top Stories

A Mexican restaurant in Columbia, South Carolina is being criticized
for its racist T-shirts showing a wooden trap using tacos as bait with
the caption “HOW TO CATCH AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT”.As the Palmetto Public
Record notes, a South Carolina reporter snapped a pho ...

Ever since Susan Rice’s botched nomination, it seems to be open season
on President Obama’s top cabinet picks for a second term. As Russ Baker
explained here, the substance-free fight over Ms. Rice revealed much
more about her accusers and Washington than it did a ...

The new, 113th Congress that was sworn in last week may be more
religiously diverse than any other session, but the body as a whole is
more committed to religion than the U.S. population. New data analysis
released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life bears this out.
When the new Con ...

Brooklyn resident Michael Jourdan’s telephone rang around 1:30am last
Friday morning. The caller asked if he was Peter Jourdan’s father; the
man had found Jourdan’s phone and wanted to return it.Michael Jourdan
wasn’t surprised. How many times would his son lose hi ...

To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive
the latest updates from TomDispatch.com here.Change usually happens very
slowly, even once all the serious people have decided there’s a
problem. That’s because, in a country as big as the United States, pu
...

Threat Level

A
federal appeals court is reinstating a civil rights lawsuit brought by a
New York man arrested for disorderly conduct after being arrested for
flipping off a police officer in traffic. There's no law against
directing to police what might ...

Google
and Yahoo were among the top advertising networks servicing the most
ads on pirate sites, according to a new study unveiled Thursday. The
analysis by the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern
California found that Pasadena, California-based ...

A
federal appeals court’s August ruling in which it said the federal
government may spy on Americans’ communications without warrants and
without fear of being sued won’t be appealed to the Supreme Court,
attorneys in the case said Thursday.

Santa
wasn't the only one sneaking around on Christmas Eve this year. Google
says that someone was caught trying to use an unauthorized digital
certificate issued in its name in an attempt to impersonate Google.com
for a man-in-the-middle attack.

Equality Trust

The
UK’s approach to drug policy appears simplistic in several ways. Seeing
all drug use as invariably problematic can reduce the
cost-effectiveness of policy. Equally, drug problems need to be seen and
addressed within their wider social and economic context; entrenched
drug problems appear to ...

Visit
the website of One Society which works in partnership with The Equality
Trust.
One Society draws on a wealth of research which shows that large divides
in income at the top and bottom of society – beyond ‘proportional
rewards’ – are damaging to our economy and society, not just for those
...

PDA AMERICA

Wikiarguments: A Practical Plan to Get Big Money Out of Politics
By Carmen Yarrusso
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”–Henry David Thoreau
Clearly, our government ...

Little Victories!
Field Site:
onenationpda.org
California ADEM elections:
Congratulations to all our PDA California friends and allies who
completed a sweep up and down at the state at the recent CA Democratic
Party Delegate elections. This will put the ...

William
John Cox
The shooter of Congresswoman Gifford acted as a domestic suicide
terrorist on the political “battleground” of American politics. His
YouTube postings and “goodby” phone messages are ominously reminiscent
of the traditional farewell videos ...

Marler Blog

Stacy
Finz of the San Francisco Chronicle weighed in on FSMA: The Food and
Drug Administration on Friday proposed wide-ranging rules to prevent the
spread of food-borne illnesses like the... Continue Reading

FDA
announcement on preventing foodborne illness and improving produce
safety WHAT: A media call hosted by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration to announce the next steps in implementing the...
Continue Reading

AutoblogGreen

Filed
under: Sedan, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Earnings/Financials, Electric
Plug In Cars is reporting that there have been "massive layoffs" at
California electric vehicle startup Coda Automotive. Apparently, more
than 50 employees, "including a substantial part of its sales and
marketing staf ...

Filed
under: LA Auto Show, Hybrid, Sedan, Ford
After three years that saw a diesel, a plug-in and a natural gas vehicle
win Green Car Journal's Green Car of the Year award, the Ford Fusion
won the title this year at the start of the second day of the LA Auto
Show. The Fusion was nominated in ...

Filed
under: Budget, Hatchback, Ford, Quick Spins
There's an analogy to diesel engines hiding in the new Ford Fiesta with
the 1.0-liter EcoBoost powerplant. There's still a segment of the
population that has bad memories of diesel engines, and that makes it
harder for Audi or Volkswagen to se ...

Filed
under: Hybrid, Lincoln
Just how important are all the luxury touches of a Lincoln compared to a
Ford? They'd better be worth a two-miles-per-gallon penalty, since
that's what buyers will be hit with if they choose the MKZ Hybrid over
the 47-mpg Fusion Hybrid. Ford announced today that t ...

Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Honda, First DrivesThe Accord Gets Friendly With A Volt-esque Powertrain
After 30 years, Honda is trying to teach the old Accord new tricks, and they're of the plug-in variety.
We've been teased by various prototypes at auto shows and in spy shots, but Honda ...

Camera Obscura

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-126935025/pathos-and-pathology-cinema.html
September 1, 2004... Because infinity--for the eye--begins just a few meters away from the retina....
--Roger Caillois, "The Image"
There are at least two shots in Todd Haynes's work that recur so ...

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-126935026/incredible-shrinking-star-todd.html
September
1, 2004... Critics have consistently characterized the films of Todd
Haynes within the terms of what B. Ruby Rich described in 1992 as the
"new queer cinema"--films whose style displayed traces ...

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-126935031/written-screen-mediation-and.html
September
1, 2004... Recently, while engaging in one of my favorite forms of
procrastination--using my computer to search for mid-century modern
bargains on eBay rather than using it to engage in more rigo ...

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-126935030/traumatic-postmodern-histories-velvet.html
September
1, 2004... If modernity was characterized by and imagined itself in
terms of a particular awareness of time and history--the unfolding of
social, political, and technological projects of ...

Democracy Now!

By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan
Amidst the White House and congressional theatrics surrounding the
so-called fiscal-cliff negotiations, a number of bills were signed into
law by President Barack Obama that renew some of the worst excesses of
the Bush years. Largely ignored by the media, ...

Leading environmentalist and human rights champion Rebecca "Becky"
Tarbotton, executive director of the organization Rainforest Action
Network ( RAN ), has died at the age of 39.
According to RAN , Tarbotton died Wednesday on a beach in Mexico while
vacationing with her husband an ...

By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan
While the final funerals for the victims of the Newtown, Conn., school
massacre have been held, gun violence continues apace, most notably with
the Christmas Eve murder of two volunteer firefighters in rural
Webster, N.Y., at the hands of an ex-convict who ...

The New York Daily News has published a series of articles highlighting
the work of columnist and Democracy Now! co-host Juan González. "It is
hard to believe that 25 years have passed since Juan walked past the
landmark globe in the landmark News Building on E. 42nd St. and took a
desk in ...

CODEPINK protesters interrupted the National Rifle Association’s
press conference on Friday as the group held its first press conference
since the Newtown massacre. During comments made by NRA CEO Wayne
LaPierre, one protester held up a banner reading, “The NRA is killing
our kids ...

The
New York Times Published: November 7, 2012 President Obama spoke in
Chicago on Tuesday night after winning re-election. Transcript: Tonight,
more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine
its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward.
(Cheers, applause ...

The
President has a double digit lead in early voting in Ohio! Alright
America! Let’s bring it like no other election before and vote this
election straight BLUE! In 2008 I called this Hammer Time and it IS
HAMMER TIME!! Let’s Go!

Insurgency Watch - Newswire

ISLAMABAD–The
apparent links between Pakistan and Faisal Shahzad are certainly cause
for concern, but let’s not lose site of things here. The attack in Times
Square was a fizzle. The rush to claim credit is a bit embarassing for
the TTP and looks like it was — like the attack itself — a rush job ...

Stepping
up
University at Buffalo The Spectrum
The president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, recognized the direness of
the situation and began to mobilize military forces to combat the
Taliban. ...
and more »

BBC
News
Obama, us leaders should contemplate future of Afghan women
Chicago Tribune
Would nuclear-armed Pakistan become even more vulnerable to its own
Taliban insurgency? Will a defeat embolden America's enemies? That line
of thinking must ...
Vietnam syndrome has begun in AfghanistanSri L ...

Officials:
Campus blasts perplexing
United Press International
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The International Islamic
University, where bomb blasts killed at least six people, is a unique
Pakistani institution ...
and more »

Schools
closed in Pakistan after bombing
GMA news.tv
An Associated Press reporter met three Taliban fighters Tuesday
traveling in a car with darkened windows at Shaktoi, a town close to the
border between ...
and more »

AlterNet - Rights and Liberties

Empty newsfeed.

Sideways News

Empty newsfeed.

Fabius Maximus

Summary:
We’ve looked at plenty of false (or at least temporarily not proven)
forecasts by American experts about wars and climate. The rule seems to
be that political correctness is rewarded, irrespective of accuracy.
Today we see the opposite, accurate forecasts by an eminent scientists
...

Summary:
While we quake in fear at the stream of apocalyptic forecasts fed us by
the news media, let’s look back at two previous forecasts about rising
sea levels and melting sea ice. Perhaps we’d get better forecasts from
our experts if we more often held them accountable for them. ...

Summary:
The news media writes frequently about global warming, but how well
informed are we. Test for yourselves. At your local pub ask the bar how
much the world has warmed during the 34 year-long satellite record (ie,
the best record). The result, which appears below (in red) will
surprise ...

Summary:
Part of our year-end national festivities should be looking at the
deterioration of the Federal government’s finances. Especially since the
resolution of the fiscal cliff follies shows that neither party in fact
cares. There are few deficit fighters, mostly arsonists. As for s ...

Summary:
The FM website strives to show readers visions of the future. Sometimes
we succeed, like with the robot revolution. Two years ago we alerted
readers of its arrival, reviewing fifty years of warnings. Now its
splash has attracted the attention of economists and journalists. Today
we l ...

Open Your Eyes News

Empty newsfeed.

The Progressive Realist

The
Republican establishment is getting all introspective on foreign
policy, particularly in response to two major pieces by Danielle
Pletka and Dan Drezner. Along with the rest of the GOP, the party's
foreign policy brain trust is wrestling with the question of what went
wrong last November.
...

Last
year, in 2012, the U.S. government spent about $841 billion on
security—a figure that includes defense, intelligence, war
appropriations, and foreign aid. At the same time, the government
collected about $1.1 trillion in individual income taxes. (And about
$2.4 trillion in revenues overall ...

President
Obama has just announced the nomination of Senator Chuck Hagel, the
chairman of the Atlantic Council, to be the 24th Secretary of Defense.
Hagel is my boss' boss, so my endorsement will carry even less weight
than it normally might. But his credentials for the job don't require
emb ...

If
Chuck Hagel is confirmed as the next Secretary of Defense, we can
expect in the Pentagon chief a strong supporter of the United Nations
and international cooperation.
The former Nebraska Senator has some fairly nuanced and developed views
about the proper role of the United Nations in global ...

There
may not be much point in trying to relitigate the torture question from
the Bush years, but every once in a while that era's torture apologists
come back around to make their case, and there is one vital question
I've never heard any of them answer: How do the defender's of "enhanced
inter ...

TAPPED - The American Prospect

It seems I was mistaken about the GOP’s stance toward raising the debt
ceiling: Top Republicans won’t walk away from using the limit as
leverage for cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Here is what Mitch
McConnell had to say on Meet the Press yesterday:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell ...

World Economic Forum / Flickr
Republicans straining to present opposition to Chuck Hagel as bipartisan
had a small assist from retired Massachusetts lawmaker Barney Frank
last week, who because of Hagel’s 1998 criticism of Ambassador James
Hormel—he called him “openly, aggressively gay” ...

There may not be much point in trying to relitigate the torture
question from the Bush years, but every once in a while that era's
torture apologists come back around to make their case, and there is one
vital question I've never heard any of them answer: How do the
defender's of "enhanced inte ...

The budget deal that just averted the supposed fiscal cliff was only a
warm up. The next fiscal cliff is the $110 billion in automatic budget
cuts (sequesters) that last week’s budget deal deferred only until
March. But, as long as we are using topographic metaphors, this is less a
cliff than ...

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Members of the 113th Congress, many accompanied by family members, take
the oath of office in the House of Representatives.
There’s no way to spin the 2011 debt-ceiling crisis as anything other
than ridiculous, but it’s easy to understand the mentality ...

Sciencebase

My
wife told me that publishing this would be like sending out one of
those braggardly “family newsletters” to one’s friends, but I wanted to
round off the blog for 2012 by posting a few memories from the year…is
that so bad? I even blogged about not posting it. Anyway, i ...

That’s
an approximation of the tabloid headlines. But, as ever, NHS Choices
offers a more solid critique of various bits of research into the
effects of online social networking on our psyche. “Overall, social
networking improves self-esteem, particularly when the person has a
greate ...

Well,
the sleeping Americans problem don’t know it yet, but the end of the
world hasn’t happened as Australians and others who have already entered
the day Winter Solstice will attest. Google celebrates with a piece of
the Mayan Calendar. Of course, why anyone would trust the “ ...

A
couple of arrivals on my desk for review worth a look. John Rentoul has
been running the Questions To Which The Answer Is No! Awards for
several years now. Celebrating the journalistic skill of basing an
entire article on a fantastically far-fetched question-based headline
and only admitting t ...

The
economy added 155,000 net new jobs in December, sufficient to keep the
official unemployment rate steady at 7.8 percent, but not enough to make
a dent in long-term unemployment. Deep problems remain in our economy
and labor market—under-employment remains at 14.4 percent, wages are bar
...

The
economy added 155,000 net new jobs in December, sufficient to keep the
official unemployment rate steady at 7.8 percent, but not enough to make
a dent in long-term unemployment. Deep problems remain in our economy
and labor market—under-employment remains at 14.4 percent, wages are bar
...

Environmental
Working Group called today’s release of draft risk assessments of five
chemicals found in paint strippers, fire retardants, degreasers,
fragrances and other consumer products a positive step by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, but EWG emphasized that the
agency&rsquo ...

Environmental
Working Group called today’s release of draft risk assessments of five
chemicals found in paint strippers, fire retardants, degreasers,
fragrances and other consumer products a positive step by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, but EWG emphasized that the
agency&rsquo ...

Harvey Wasserman
Two stricken California reactors may soon redefine a global movement
aimed at eradicating nuclear power. Protesters march near the San Onofre
nuclear plant last year on the one-year anniversary of the Japanese
nuclear accid ...

David Morris
Who should pay the costs of climate disasters? In light of the current
debate in the United States about federal assistance to Hurricane Sandy
victims and the recent debate at the recent Doha Climate Conference
about internatio ...

Robert Reich
It has become accepted economic wisdom, uttered with deadpan certainty
by policy pundits and budget scolds on both sides of the aisle, that the
only way to get control over America’s looming deficits is to “reform e
...

Water Wars

A
couple of days after Christmas, the federal Bureau of Land Management
approved a plan to carry billions of gallons of water from rural Nevada
counties near the Utah border to Las Vegas by way of a 263-mile
pipeline.

Like
us on Facebook for a chance to be chosen for a free Kitchen Makeover
Design Consultation. Like this page for chance to win a complimentary
class! Start 2013 with health, balance, & well being in the Yoga 101
Series for Beginners. Scholarships available!

The Wonk Room

A
California driver who snuck into a carpool lane that requires two or
more passengers in a vehicle claims he should not have to pay his ticket
because “he had corporate incorporation papers in his car at the time
and, he says, the state vehicle code views corporations as
persons—therefore ...

Though
Catholic leaders continue to attack same-sex marriage in Rhode Island, a
group of over 100 religious leaders from 13 different denominations
throughout the state has come together to support equality. The
interfaith group outlines the following tenets in their endorsement of
the freedom t ...

Fresh
off the deal to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff,” Congressional
Democrats are gearing up for the next round of budget negotiations.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said yesterday that the fiscal
cliff deal was “not enough on the revenue side,” with the c ...

When
Texas intentionally dismantled its women’s health program by refusing
to fund Planned Parenthood — the largest women’s health group in the
country — the state was essentially telling poor women they would need
to find new doctors. Thousands of Texan women are now sea ...

Soon
after President Obama announced this afternoon that he nominated former
Republican senator Chuck Hagel as the next Secretary of Defense, former
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and former Secretary of State Gen. Colin
Powell, both Republicans themselves, offered support for he move. “Th
...

thwap's schoolyard

So,
let's see if we're clear here. Chief Spence of Attawapiskat is corrupt.
That's why here reserve has been crying out for years and years, for a
goddamned school and for houses for people whose homes are mold-infested
hellholes? Becaubse for years and years she's been corrupt? And now her
very ...

With
all the excitement surrounding "Idle No More" and Chief Spence's
hunger-strike, the passing of 2012 and the complete failure of Elections
Canada to have completed its investigation into the 2011 election law
violations slipped my mind. Until today.
So, ... um, .... yep. Massive violations ...

I'm
not even going copy and paste the anonymous comments from mainstream
websites about Chief Spence and "Idle No More." We all know the drill.
They say that there is NO racism in Canada. The problems that the First
Nations suffer (poverty, alcoholism, suicide, homelessness, high
incarcera ...

This
story is filed November 27th, 2012.
In rural areas, a common corruption allegation is that the relatives or
friends of powerful militia commanders are thrown into classrooms to
collect a teacher's salary -- despite being unqualified to
teach. There's NATO "nation-building" for you!
...

Making
my rounds of the mainstream news online I notice that harperscum trolls
have all been trained to parrot the lie that Chief Spence was given $90
million to provide housing for her community of 2,000 people and
yadda-yadda-yadda, These disgusting cretins insinuate that Chief
Spence's hunger ...

What
would Mars look like if it had water and was green? A new photo by an
American software engineer provides Earthlings a view of how the fourth
planet from the sun would appear if it sustained life.

The
end of the holiday season may leave many with happy memories, but for
others, it can be dark indeed. A new anthology of short Irish fiction is
hoping to address the spectre of suicide, and help suicide charity
Console at the same time.

End Homelessness | Change.org

Fulfilling
the wishes and happiness of children is at the heart of the holiday
season. So, now seems particularly timely for Mississippi to launch a
new plan to end child homelessness (pdf) in the state. What better way
to set the season of giving in motion than by committing to finding safe
an ...

This
Thanksgiving, most of us around the country shared a bountiful harvest
feast with friends and family. We celebrated all that we are thankful
for by gorging ourselves right into a food coma. It's the American way.
Unfortunately, it's also the American way to be thankful for all that we
have ...

What
are they thinking? People obviously don't see the homeless as human or
they wouldn't attempt to hire them to do most of the insane, demeaning
and illegal jobs out there. Here's a small sampling:
Rob dead bodies. The Aokigahara forest at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan
is the site of 50 to 100 ...

Instead
of pretending homelessness doesn't exist, creating new laws to make it
illegal to sit or sleep in public, or sending homeless residents on a
one-way trip out of town, Los Angeles County may attempt to actually do
something about ending homelessness. And the county is setting the bar
high ...

Despite
its economic troubles, Detroit is not known for being kind to the
homeless. That's too bad, since there are nearly 10,000 homeless people
living there.
In October, police say that Steven James Diponio, 54, became so enraged
at Charles Duncan, 42, who was homeless and sleeping behind a sc ...

Auditor
General Michael Ferguson, who recently introduced a little reality to
discussion of the planned F-35 procurement, is now turning his sights on
the Harper government's "National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy".

International
Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War has released a video
detailing the humanitarian, medical, and environmental consequences of
nuclear war and explaining why nuclear weapons must be eliminated.

The
holiday season is finally almost over, so let’s start the de-stressing
process…. Ice cream seems like a quick fix, but you’re better off making
some wise stress-busting diet choices such as: Eating oatmeal, which
provides more of all the B-Vitamins (except for pantothenic a ...

Today,
Kevin reveals the REAL reason why the government is sending over
billions of dollars in aid to countries all around the world. Plus, pet
expert, Dr. Geoffrey Broderick, stops by the show to explain how you can
turn your pet’s health around and even double its lifespan! Self Help:
Viral De ...

The
holidays are officially upon us and that means stress levels are rising
to an all time high! Here are some helpful and essential tips to lower
your stress levels and allow you to have a relaxing and more
importantly, fun, holiday season! 1. Emphasize an organic, whole foods
diet with plenty ...

Today,
Kevin explains how the media, internet, television, movies, magazines
and newspapers are ALL misleading you. Plus, find out why, in life, it’s
not about the mistakes you’ve made, but the lessons you’ve learned.
Self Help: You Become What You Think About Most Of The Time Success Is A
Decis ...

Armies of Liberation

On
Monday Yemen’s interim president Mansour Abdo Hadi named several judges
to the Supreme Commission on Elections and Referendum (SCER). The SCER
is responsible for the technical aspects of elections and has a pivotal
role in maintaining or subverting the integrity of electi ...

High
risk US embassy in Yemen gets Marine reinforcements as protests
continue by Jane Novak An elite Marine rapid response team arrived in
Yemen’s capital to protect the US embassy there which remains vulnerable
and in disrepair following a mob attack this week. Protests against a
video clip dee ...

Without
much fanfare or explanation, the US State Department revised its
defense export policy on Yemen and will now consider applications for
licenses to export lethal defense articles to Yemen. The July 3, 2012
Federal Register notice updates the US International Traffic in Arms
Regulations (I ...

Several
children were among 25 people killed by land mines planted as al Qaeda
fled Yemen’s southern province of Abyan, the Yemen Executive Mine Action
Center (YEMAC) said on Sunday. Reporting to Abyan’s governor, the YEMAC
said it had cleared or exploded over 2100 shells and mines since June
13 ...

Al
Qaeda in Yemen threatened to execute 73 captured Yemeni soldiers unless
the terror group’s imprisoned comrades are released. “Executing
prisoners is a serious violation of the laws of war and a war crime,”
Human Rights Watch said in a statement today. “It is also a war crime to
use detainees ...

Dark
Politricks Feed
View the latest alternative news at DarkPolitricks.comRaw Story A
satirical group calling itself the “Chick-fil-A Foundation” is showing
how easy it is to get a free chicken sandwich by simply renouncing
homosexuality. In a video posted on Sunday, John, R ...

Dark
Politricks Feed
View the latest alternative news at DarkPolitricks.comStop the Press:
0.000125 % of the Jews are Ethical and Universalists By Gilad
AtzmonMonday, January 7th, 2013 View the original about Stop the Press:
0.000125 % of the Jews are Ethical and Universalists at Veterans Today
...

Dandelion Salad

by
Chris Hedges Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Truthdig January 7, 2013
Shannon McLeish of Florida is a 45-year-old married mother of two young
children. She is a homeowner, a taxpayer and a safe driver. She votes in
every election. She attends a Unitarian Universalist church on Sundays.
She is ...

by
Andrew Gavin Marshall Featured Writer Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com January 7, 2013 Corporate power is
immense. The world’s largest corporation is Royal Dutch Shell, surpassed
in wealth only by the 24 largest countries on earth. Of the 150 largest
economic entities in the wor ...

by
Lesley Docksey Guest Writer Dandelion Salad Jan. 2, 2013 What is this
life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare. –William
Henry Davies Each year that passes I become more despairing over the
lack of action to contain climate change, a despair echoed by George
Monbiot. T ...

by
Finian Cunningham Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Ethiopia Crossposted
from PressTV January 2, 2013 Recent legal moves by the governments of
Ethiopia, Indonesia and the Philippines to protect their nationals
working in the Persian Gulf Arab states point to this harrowing fact:
the Arab slave ...

Dandelion
Salad http://www.haymarketbooks.org/event/3663 Southern Connecticut
State University December 4, 2012 No longer is the impact of climate
change a question of if, but rather a question of when. The New York
Times says storms like Sandy could become a yearly event. Featured
Speaker: Chri ...

Your New Reality

Only
A Few Weeks Ago, Rupert Murdoch Was Still King Of The World
A glimpse at life before the hacking scandal, from the UK Independent :
It was only a few weeks ago that Rupert, his son James, daughter
Elisabeth and Rebekah Brooks were the talk of the town; hailed as the
king-makers to the pol ...

This
man's brain comprehends in a fraction of a second what is about to
happen, and orders his body into what looks like a superhuman sprint to
get out of the way. The flight mechanism kicks in so fast the conscious
mind, distracted by thoughts of work, home, leisure and love, plays no
role in t ...

Tupac Rises
Well, fuck me....
From even a few dozen rows back, reportedly, the hologram of Tupac was utterly believable.
How long before a Michael Jackson hologram culled from his greatest live performances is touring the world's stadiums?
I've been waiting decades to see holographic tech ...

Wired - Science

Atmospheric
scientists are working with an app developer to take air pressure
information that is already being collected from thousands of Android
phones and feed it into sophisticated new climate models. If they get
enough buy-in from Android owners, you ...

After
more than a century, the international prototype kilogram – a
cylindrical chunk of metal stored in a French vault – doesn't weigh the
same as its 40 replicas, distributed worldwide and used to standardize
mass measurements. Suspecting that gunk ...

The
Bug Nebula, NGC 6302, is one of the brightest and most extreme
planetary nebulae known. It is located about 4,000 light-years away,
towards the Scorpius constellation (the Scorpion). The nebula is the
swansong of a dying solar-like star lying ...

Galileo
false-color image of the Mare Tranquillitatis and Mare Serenitatis
areas of the Moon. The picture was made from four exposures taken during
Galileo's second Earth/Moon flyby.
The colors are enhanced to highlight compositional differences.

A
solar eruption gracefully rose up from the sun on Dec. 31, 2012,
twisting and turning. Magnetic forces drove the flow of plasma, but
without sufficient force to overcome the sun’s gravity much of the
plasma fell back into the ...

Israeli Occupation Archive

The
success or failure of Israel's onslaught on Gaza can only be judged
against the operation’s aims.
The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation
of Palestinian lands, now in its fifth decade. Go to the IOA website
for much more...

G4S
is up for the Public Eye People’s Award 2013, the ‘name and shame’
award no company wants to win. G4S, the world’s largest private military
and security company, is complicit in Israel’s...
The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation
of Palestinian lands, no ...

American
Jewish leaders have expressed “concern” about the impending entry of
the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera network to the US television market, citing
its record of anti-Israeli coverage and support...
The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation
of Palestinian la ...

Haneen
Zoabi: “I am treated as though I am not part of this place. The Jews
came to this land and did not want to integrate, fit in, get to know the
natives and the language of the place and its...
The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation
of Palestinian lands ...

According
to Ir Amim, 6,932 units were approved for future construction in 2012,
compared to 1,772 homes in 2011 and 569 in 2010. The largest building
plans were approved for Gilo, Har Homa and Givat...
The Israeli Occupation Archive (IOA) covers Israel's military occupation
of Palestinian ...

Ria Novosti - Military

China
has unveiled for the first time its Yi Long unmanned aerial vehicle
(UAV) local media reported on Wednesday, which its makers claim is far
cheaper than its Israeli and American analogs at less than $1 million.

NewsWise

Cornell
University alumni Theodore Kim and Jeremy Selan; and Cornell professor
Doug James, have won two separate Academy Awards in 2013 for technical
achievement, from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Their
work became impressive special effects in films like "Avatar",
"Monsters ...

Three
key studies from the 2013 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium will be
featured in an embargoed presscast for reporters on Tuesday, February
12, 2013, from 12:00-1:30 PM (EST). These important studies will focus
on the latest advances being made in the screening and management of
several genit ...

Daily
doses of a liquid containing peanut powder, in gradually increasing
amounts, enabled patients with peanut allergy to safely consume peanut
in amounts at least 10 times greater than their baseline.

Research
findings from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine are
shining a light on an important regulatory role performed by the
so-called dark matter, or "junk DNA," within each of our genes.

Natural Health News

Bird
Flu, or H5N1, doesn't spread easily among humans, but its capability of
mutating has scientists worrying whether it could mutate enough to
cause a human pandemic. The controversy is especially heated since it
was announced that a group of researchers had figured out how to
manipulate the vi ...

Search This Blog

Translate

Microsoft Translate

opit or oldephartte's shared items

About Me

I've been 'around' for a few years now, pursuing the shifting goal of a sharable home-made surfers resource site focused on ease of use and variety of mostly adult ( whoa : I didn't say prurient ) content.